In the midwestern US, dozens of bitcoin ATMs' screens have been smashed with hammers, according to CoinDesk report.
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-atms-attacked-hammers-us-midwest/
The perpetrators, Andrew Konja, Alvin Konja and Odai Mabroukare have been already sued by the company that owns said ATMs, SandP Solutions.
One of the perpetrators, Andrew Konja, was in fact operating his own bitcoin ATM business, wich was later sold or merged with Bitexpress.
Apparently, the motives behind this attack may have been for personal conflicts or as way to directly affect bitcoin ATM business competitors.
Is bitcoin reputation smeared?
Does this affect bitcoin reputation in any way? Although bitcoin has recently gained a higher renown on the general opinion, it is clear that it will take some more time to be actually as regular, day-to-day currency.
Bitcoin is known for the safety of its transactions, but still general public may not find bitcoin as appealing with news like these, considering that may be prone to vandalism just like any other regular currency.
Insertion of bitcoin into mainstream public
The creation of bitcoin ATMs represents a huge step on the introduction of bitcoin to those not related with blockchain technology. And considering Trump's apparent support for the cryptocurrency, the adoption might be even greater on the years to come. Let's just hope criminal acts like the main topic of this post doesn't affect general opinion on bitcoin.
